If you are a sales associate at Lowe’s, your job description does include preventing shoplifting, but it does not include pursuing shoplifters, that is the job of loss prevention specialists.
If I’m a retail worker and someone is shoplifting and I interfere, I get fired. If I try to stop them and get assaulted, I get fired. If they attempt to assault me and I knock them unconscious, I get fired. There’s one common outcome in these situations. Some poor retail employee loses a $16 an hour job while the perp walks and the business execs continue to profit. Steal away.